Blissikins' Boo To You CBR Trip Oct. 2015! **Actual TR post AK** Aug. 2017

[Chicago Mo]

I got a Fiat Panda.

It LOOKS like a panda!

I bought some sign-writer vinyl on eBay and got creative!

I LOVE IT!!! it's so sparkly! I would put it all the way around my battleship!

The notebook has been FOUND!

HOOOOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! you deserve a dancing banana

 

[Blissikins]

It LOOKS like a panda!

Doesn't it?! So cute, I love it.

I LOVE IT!!! it's so sparkly! I would put it all the way around my battleship!

PM me your address if you would like one, I'll pop one in the post for you. You deserve some happy mail.

HOOOOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! you deserve a dancing banana

Thanks! I did a little happy dance myself when I found it!

 

[Blissikins]

I swear I will actually do a trip-related post one day. Really. I will. I promise. I found the notebook and everything.

So, what happened.

More importantly, what HASN'T happened yet...We have not moved house. Epic fail on that front. I'm also now an extra four weeks behind the schedule I was about 8 weeks behind 4 weeks ago. So, that's going well. Did I mention I suffer with anxiety? Or is that obvious by this point?! I'm losing my mind over here.

Four weeks ago my Mum was rushed into hospital, with sepsis and cellulitis (she also has lupus and numerous other conditions including a neuro condition, so even mild infections can be very serious). Time in the High Dependency Unit, a run-in with Doctor Doom ("I see you don't have a DNR in place...why is that?" is not the way to open that kind of discussion ), four weeks of super-antibiotics, delirium from the time in HDU (though at first we worried it was a permanent change following fits from the fever/infections)...Needless to say NOTHING else has been done and I am mentally and physically exhausted. Hopefully she will be able to come home in the next week or so. Thankfully the infections seem to have passed but it was very touch and go for 3 weeks or so.

I haven't even thought about the next trip in forever. I just can't get excited about it at the moment, especially as right now we have no plans. I think the Hatter has it just about right.

The past couple of days I've come back to peruse the DIS and try and find it. Muchness? Where are you?! It must be around here somewhere...

 

[Chicago Mo]

Oh no.. I am so so sorry for everything going on.. I will keep you in my prayers especially for a perfect recovery.

Hugs to you and your family!!!

 

[takehertothemoon]

Pretty much!!

The One With Lightning and a Meteor Shower! Pt. II

Off to Tampa we go!!

We chose not to rent a Sat-Nav this time, and we didn’t bring our own from home. The plan was to rent one if we decided we needed to. Instead, we downloaded the “Navmii” app which I can’t recommend highly enough! I’m sure it would be even better if you actually had a data connection on the road, but we were able to download the route for our journey in the hotel (it runs off Google Maps), and it got us to where we were going every time. I would definitely recommend it over paying to hire one from a rental company. Very handy for late-night trips to Wal-Mart and, of course, our trip to Tampa. I guess most of you are thinking “It’s pretty much just one road...How hard is it?!” Well when you’re already driving on the “wrong” side of the road, you need all the help you can get! It was a nice drive, we got to see a different bit of Florida than we did last trip (we went the other way and drove to Kennedy Space Centre last time), and we took full advantage of having a country station available on the car radio. All in all, an enjoyable trip! We couldn’t find the car park that we were meant to be in when we arrived at the Arena, so we just went into the nearest one. That worked in our favour later when we were toting shopping back to the car in the scorching heat!

Tram!

You may have noticed by now that John has no awareness of the camera whatsoever. I soon get bored of cropping his head and/or random limbs out of shots and just leave him there, wandering around obliviously. We soon discovered that this was the boring side of the building!


I’ve never been to an NHL game before, so I had no idea just how much goes on around the arena before the game! Forgetting that I was getting the nice cool air-con of the car, I was thinking perhaps it was a bit cooler here than in Orlando. People were wandering around with their jerseys on, I even saw a guy in a hoodie, and started to wonder if my jersey would be warm enough. Then I opened the car door. How on earth were those people dressed like that? What’s wrong with them?! If anything it was even HOTTER than it had been in Orlando! How was that guy wearing a hoodie not melting into a puddle on the floor? Of course John had to fit in, because he’d acclimatised (ha!), so he put his jersey on too. I opted to carry mine as I was already sweating an unattractive amount. I thought there was something crawling on my back at one point. Nope. Sweat. How do people live like this?! I’m so pale I’m practically translucent, and I don’t handle the heat well on hot days in England. I’m genuinely amazed I didn’t die, or at least get sick with heat stroke, that day. I’ve never been that hot in my life! It turned out we’d parked on the side of the building furthest away from the entrance too, so we set off on the trek around the building.


We could hear the party before we actually saw it. I was blown away with the building being covered in banners, and the team taking the same billing/advertising as acts like WWE and Taylor Swift. Over here hockey is very much a minority sport, and our games are often bumped out of the arena if a big act wants to play there on a night we have already booked. To see it treated with such respect was miles away from what we are used to at home! We climbed the steps to a massive paved area...Wow!


For comparison...This is our arena at home during the season:

Now look at how amazing the Amalie arena looks!

Even the pillars are logoed.

Wow.

I never did find out if I made it on to the broadcast! We were pretty close though.

Massive screens playing highlights, a DJ, food trucks, outdoor bars, news teams set up all over the place...It was crazy! I’ve never seen anything like that in my life for a hockey game. It was really funny seeing people’s reactions to us, wandering around. I wish I’d filmed it actually. There’s a fair bit of orange on our jerseys, so clearly from a distance we were lumped in with the Flyers fans. But then the Flyers fans realised that it wasn’t their jersey, so they were bemused too. I was pretty surprised that no-one talked to us, everyone we spoke to at home who’d been to a game said that the fans were really friendly and wanted to know where they were from, what hockey was like in the UK, etc, but we obviously confused the ones outside a bit too much because no-one wanted to chat! Oh well! Time for my second favourite pastime after taking: SHOPPING! You know by now everything’s bigger. I don’t have to say it. We were in the team store for a good 30mins. A friend of ours had asked for a jersey, John wanted a jersey, I didn’t know what I wanted but I needed to buy something, because it was my first NHL game and I wanted a souvenir. This was not going to end cheaply! I’m fairly certain John only ended up with one jersey from the actual team store. Plus the one we picked up for our friend. They had some home opener commemorative pucks, so obviously we needed a couple of those, and I got a cool hoodie that looks like a jersey. I also wanted a T-shirt but I couldn’t decide which one, so I did that annoying thing I do where I decide to think about it and save money, leave the store, and immediately decide I need one as we’re heading off to somewhere else. Sometimes impulse purchases are good. They save time later. I never learn.


We decided to take our purchases back to the car so we didn’t have to worry about keeping track of them during the game. It was during this trip to the car park that I had a run-in with Florida State Police. Yup. Now is the time. I have to come clean about my brush with the law.


I love spotting wildlife.

We do not get these jurassic-sized dragonflies at home!


Florida is heaven for me with the lizards and different birds and random roaming rabbits and squirrels. Well as we were hurrying along the main road around the arena, a squirrel wanders out of the bushes into the middle of the sidewalk a way in front, and looks at us. Obviously, I say hello to it, because I cannot be taken out in public if you don’t enjoy the shame of your companion having random conversations with wildlife (I blame growing up with Disney movies). Mr Squirrel makes to head back into the bushes, and suddenly makes a U-turn and sprints for the road which is teeming with rush-hour/pre-game traffic, complete with a patrol car on the side of the road and the policeman stood in the middle directing cars. Mr Squirrel makes a break for the road right in front of the patrol car, by the policeman, seemingly about to head under the tires of a passing truck. Without thinking (it’s amazing how often those two words describe my day to day actions) I yell out “NO!! NOT THAT WAY! YOU’LL DIE!!!” The policeman, who can’t see the squirrel and so has no idea of its impending peril, is now looking around for a small child or other human person running into the road, and also (I presume) rather concerned that a random foreign voice is screeching about death when all he’s meant to be doing is directing rush hour traffic. As he looked over at me I’m exaggeratedly and apologetically mouthing “Sorry! There was a squirrel!” as John drags me off down the street muttering something about police there being armed.

He doesn’t look concerned, does he? We saw him again on the way back from the car. Given that the policeman was still in the same spot, I limited squirrel interaction to a photo and a polite nod in his direction this time.


When we got back to the arena doors were open, so we headed inside. There was a massive line (more just a massive clump of people, actually, “line” is being overly generous to their organisational system!) to get through the metal detector. The closer I got to the front of the crowd, the less I minded waiting. Really, this was one occasion I wouldn’t have mind being picked for a random pat-down. Wow! Whoever hires the security at the Amalie Arena...I applaud you. Excellent choices.


I don’t think I’ve ever been in an arena this big!

The O2 in London is pretty big...I’m fairly certain this is bigger!


I’m glad we went in a little early, it was nice to soak up the atmosphere! We had originally debated going for cheaper seats and going to both games that were on while we were in Florida, but ended up going to one game in seats that were twice as expensive! I’m glad we did, as we had an excellent view! We chatted a little with the people near us, the guy next to us was a little shocked that I knew the National Anthem, I don’t know why (I just change “our” to “your”...still makes sense!).

For my 18th birthday, my in-laws bought me a huge framed print of Eric Lindros in a Flyers vs NYR game. I never would have believed one day I would watch a Flyers game in person!

Face-off!

It was a fantastic game! We got our money’s worth as it went into overtime, and joined in with the celebrations afterwards. There was a party somewhere else in the Arena after the game, but we decided to go and find food instead. We followed the crowd and headed to Hooters a short walk from the Arena for a quick dinner where we watched the game highlights all over again. Then it was back to the car and off on the long drive “home” to CBR.


Next Up: Back to Disney!

I've been trying to find posts about going to a Lightning game! I just found my Husbands team will be playing Lightning on Dec 7th while we're there!!! We have Epcot that day with EMH thank goodness! We'd be going on a Thursday also, 7:30 game...what time did you leave? Did it take long to get there? About what time were you "home"? Just wondering if we can really fit it into our already full plans! Thanks for such a great read!

 

[Blissikins]

I've been trying to find posts about going to a Lightning game! I just found my Husbands team will be playing Lightning on Dec 7th while we're there!!! We have Epcot that day with EMH thank goodness! We'd be going on a Thursday also, 7:30 game...what time did you leave? Did it take long to get there? About what time were you "home"? Just wondering if we can really fit it into our already full plans! Thanks for such a great read!

You're welcome! Glad you're enjoying it! I would say a game is worth the effort of trying to fit it in if you possibly can, definitely! I would also say splurge on the "better" seats if you can afford to. We actually debated going to two games and getting really cheap seats up in the higher tiers instead, but decided in the end to go for one game, but with more expensive seats. Definitely worth it for the atmosphere.

We left after lunch, I think we left around 3pm? I know we allowed an extra hour for getting lost and it's around a 90min journey to start off with I believe. Getting home I think we stuck to the 90min, but we went to Hooters after the game for something to eat, we didn't leave Tampa until around 11:30pm-midnight. We're night owls though so the late night didn't bother us too much the next day, the Tampa trip was actually one of our restful days!

 

[Blissikins]

July ‘17 Life Update!


Over a year since a proper TR update?! Geez. Well, for a lot of the time, I haven’t been in a very Disney frame of mind. I can’t believe it was November when I posted that Hatter gif, and I’m just about starting to feel a little better and more like myself. Without being too much of a downer, Mum has been in hospital about once a month since October for a week+ at a time, right up until last month. Including two five-week stays, one with a week in ICU, one in April this year with 9 days in neuro ICU. Very frightening. But, everyone is alive and, at the moment, in pretty good shape, so that’s good.


Meanwhile, it’s a crazy summer over here! We FINALLY moved at the start of July, after nearly 6mo of mortgage hold-ups. On our 10th anniversary in fact. Who’s stupid idea was that?! (OK, it was mine). WORST way to celebrate ever. EVER.

Truth be told we weren’t completely boxed up and ready to go. But rather than lose the £500+ we’d already paid the removal company and change the date, we decided to plough on and let them take the boxes we’d already packed, and the furniture, and sort the rest later. The ILs bought our old place, so fortunately we have a few extra weeks after completion to clear out completely anyway. We actually didn’t end up completing until the 19th, even though we moved on the 7th. Now I just want it all over with. I am so sick of boxes (and “helpful” people who REALLY aren’t very helpful!)! We’ve gotten rid of so much “life silt” that we’d accumulated though, thank goodness. We have a target of being ready for company by the end of August. Time will tell if we manage it or not!


If you’ve seen my comments on other trip reports (mainly Mo’s) you will know that I was very wary about booking another trip. Now, if you happen to glance over my signature, you might spot a little something new… Do you want to hear the story? Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.


I was NOT in a very Disney frame of mind. John kept presenting me with pricing ups for various hotels, and deals and offers, ever since before Christmas, but...I just wasn’t interested. At the same time I was heartbroken that our 10th anniversary Halloween/Christmas 2017 trip was never going to be, but all the time in hospitals with Mum lately...I didn’t want to be 9hrs away from a possible call to rush to the ER when I could be 20min away. I didn’t want to leave the rest of my family incase something awful happened and I wasn’t there for them. I didn’t want to miss getting the chance to say goodbye, if it came to that. As I said, it’s been rough.


Mondays are always my day off. Now usually on my day off I refuse point blank to set foot in the mall where I work. But lately, Krispy Kreme over here have been running Milkshake Monday, 2-4-1 on any of their milkshakes, so there have been a couple of times I’ve been persuaded. This past Monday was one of those times, though I put up a good fight, that we ended up popping in to the mall when John finished work. Well the Krispy Kreme is at the same end as the travel agent, and he said let’s just nip in and price something up, just to see if they can price-match their online offers in store, so we did...and next thing I knew we had 268 days until our next Disney trip!


I won’t start another PTR given that I’m barely half way through this TR, but the basics are:


Caribbean Beach Resort

April 2018

DDP (TS not QS this time!)

14 day Disney Parkhoppers and

Universal Parkhoppers including Volcano Bay

No car rental this time! :O Though we will probably hire one for Universal days, and the outlets.

Flying into Sanford so no Magical/Tragical Express, though the TA does provide their own transport to and from the hotel.


We want to go to Hoop De Doo, 1900 Park Fare, Akershus, Le Cellier, Tusker House...Places we haven’t tried yet. The bucket lists are starting already!

 

[Blissikins]

Friday: The One With The Safari


It’s been soooooo long since a proper update...but the time hasn’t been wasted, I promise. When Photobucket started charging, I had to move ALL my photos to Imgur! Thanks Photobucket. The TR also hit 100 pages in GoogleDocs...then I had to go through changing all the photo links. Thanks Photobucket. Grrr.


We had Friday down as an Animal Kingdom day. Because the day at AK is (was, pre Pandora/Rivers of Light!) so short, we decided to skip breakfast at CBR get an early start. Now when I say “early”, clearly I mean “early for us but everyone else was probably at the parks by the time we ventured out of our room”. It takes a long time to get such a pale person as me ready for the Florida heat! By the time I was slicked up in sunblock we were able to wander straight onto a bus for AK with no line.


We learned pretty early on that we could get a good breakfast at Starbucks that would feed both of us for one meal credit. Why we were being so thrifty I don’t know, as we ended up with 20+ meal credits left at the end of the two weeks, but this was still early days. Plus, the servings are so huge! Much bigger than we are used to at home, where the largest size is Venti. The baristas at MK tipped us off that one snack credit gets any size beverage. BIG mistake! I think I drank my weight in frappes by the end of the trip. AK was where we discovered the double chocolatey Graham frappe. OMG. So good. John I think just had his usual strawberry, and I risked a Breakfast Sandwich to complete the three snack credits. It was OK. I’m not overly keen on the pre-packaged eggs a lot of places use for breakfast. I was already spoiled with my diet of French toast by that point, anything else was sadly lacking!

I just love the Disney cups.


Our FP that morning was one that I was excited about: Kilimanjaro Safaris. On our last trip we didn’t manage to go on safari, we only did one full day at AK which made me violently ill (pale person...Florida heat...there seems to be a lot less shade and AC at AK!), and during which we seemed to do alarmingly little. Not this time! Our safari guide was excellent, really chatty and pleasant, giving us his own personal stories about the animals and past safaris, as well as the basic information. He was great! The stability was not so good however, so most of my shots look like this:

I got a few good ones though…

After our safari, we went for a stroll to look at some of the scenery, smaller animals, and the Tree of Life. I think we also did It’s a Bug’s Life but I don’t seem to have any photographic evidence!

I think this guy is one of my favourite carvings! So detailed.

Then it was off to meet the Yeti! Another ride we missed on our last visit to AK (seriously, what did we DO that day besides get heatstroke?).

 

[Chicago Mo]

If you’ve seen my comments on other trip reports (mainly Mo’s)

I Heart you!!

Thank you for sticking around and i am caught up here Which i really need to be a better dis friend!!

Caribbean Beach Resort

April 2018

I cannot tell you how excited i am for you!!! Yes i pulled out the creepy dancing MIB dude.

I am here and i am staying!


By the way...

I have the same exact photo: